


you make me happy when skies are grey

by driedupwishes



Series: your ass is an a+ but your sass is only a b- [8]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Day and Night, Dorks in Love, Ereri Week Spring 2016, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Skype, Tattoos, Zelda and Pokemon references
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-16
Updated: 2016-05-16
Packaged: 2018-06-08 17:48:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6866878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/driedupwishes/pseuds/driedupwishes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You turn my nights into day,” Eren says, the words tumbling out before he can do something ridiculous, like bite his tongue in half or have his voice crack around one of the words with the weight of his emotions. Levi blinks, looking a little floored, and Eren barrels on, straightening before he adds, “you’re my sunshine, Levi. It, uh. I got it for you.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	you make me happy when skies are grey

“Bruh,” Eren says, wiggling in excitement. Across the Skype connection Levi rolls his eyes, lips curling slightly into a fond, soft smile. Eren misses him like crazy, but a glance at the date in the corner of his monitor eases that ache a little. The semester can’t last forever and the end is coming, which means finally, fucking _finally_ Levi will be back in his arms. “I’ve gotta show you something, babe.”

Levi’s eyebrows arch, elegant and endearing, smile sliding into a little smirk as he ducks his head and runs a hand through his hair, laughter a burst against Eren’s speakers that tickles the edges of his heart.

“Well,” Levi says, a little skeptically, if Eren says so himself. He has half a mind to be _offended_ at the lack of excitement his declaration has inspired in his love, but Levi glances up at him and even though they’re hundreds of miles apart and their camera connection is absolute _shit_ , Eren can piece together from grainy footage and his memory what he looks like, dark lashes shadowing stormy eyes, glinting like ice chips and bright like starlight was contained in his irises.

Eren feels his chest clench, his fingers curling a little nervously in his lap as he watches Levi breathe out with a little huff, his laptop bouncing on his knees.

“I’m all eyes, Eren,” Levi continues, gesturing with a little twitch of his wrist before he pulls the plaid shirt Eren had sent him in a package tighter across his chest. His apartment is still apparently cold, chilly weather up there even in the second half of April, and Eren had been quick to send up a few of the long sleeved shirts he no longer needed to keep his boyfriend cozy once the weather warmed up where he was.

The sight of Levi wrapped up in one of Eren’s flannels is distracting for sure, but Eren feels a shiver at the reminder that he has something _important_ to show Levi. His insides knot up and he swallows thickly, shimming his shoulders before he blows air out from between his teeth and grabs the hem of his shirt.

Levi’s eyebrows arch even further, but it’s something Eren notices in the background, his heart beginning to hammer as he wrenches up the corner of his shirt, showcasing his ribs to the camera, and declares, “ _tada!_ ”

“Is that- _is that a tattoo?_ ”

“Uh, _yeah_ ,” Eren says, with more confidence than he feels in the wake of Levi’s trembling surprise. He peaks around the edge of his own shirt, twisting to make sure the black ink is still visible to the webcam. It is, though Eren wonders if it’s a good enough angle to really know what it _is_ , and he clears his throat, ready to explain, when something crosses Levi’s expression, sharpening it with surprise before his jaw falls slackly open.

“Those are music notes, right,” Levi asks. His eyebrows are bent, eyes focused on Eren’s side as he tries to figure out what he’s looking at. Eren reaches forward with his other hand, tipping the camera down a little bit, trying to angle it so that Levi can see it better. He ends up hauling the computer closer after a second, tipping the screen so he has to duck his head to be seen, and he’s contemplating just hauling his shirt completely over his head when Levi makes a soft noise in the back of his throat that sounds like a revelation.

“Hum it,” Levi requests softly. Eren feels himself flush and thinks about playing dumb, but even through the grainy connection Levi’s eyes are bright and inviting, his mouth soft with an expression of barely hidden longing.

Eren clears his throat quietly and then, as carefully as he can and as loudly as he can from memory, begins to hum. His throat feels scratchy with nerves and his heart is lurching in a wild ping-pong match between his throat and his stomach, which makes it hard to tell if what he’s humming is even _recognizable_ until he looks up through his lashes at the screen and sees Levi’s face.

He’s pale, swamped in Eren’s plaid shirt, his chin ducked down against the rumpled, half popped collar of the shirt, but it’s his eyes that really catch Eren’s attention. They’re bright and glistening, wide enough Eren can see the color so clearly he feels like he’s drowning in it, and he feels himself cut off with a choked breath, his throat closing over as heat curls across his chest and down his neck as Levi’s mouth opens in silent shock.

“You got the fucking _Sun’s Song_ tattooed on your _rib cage_?!”

Eren clears his throat and then swallows, busying himself with looking anywhere but at Levi for a second as he fights to get his heart under control. “Yeah,” Eren answers faintly, when he can dislodge his heart from his throat properly to speak. “It’s- yeah.”

Levi’s mouth hangs open for a minute, eyelashes fluttering as he blinks, seemingly thrown completely by Eren’s tattoo. He hadn’t thought it’d be this much of a _surprise_ ; he knows he’s talked about getting a tattoo before, but maybe it’s _what_ the tattoo is of that has Levi really thrown. He clears his throat and jostles the laptop on his knees before adjusting the camera back and letting his shirt fall back down.

“Do you, uh, wanna know why I got it?”

Levi takes a minute to clear his throat, fingers tugging at the cuffs of his sleeves before he nods. “Yeah,” he says. “Tell me.”

“You turn my nights into day,” Eren says, the words tumbling out before he can do something ridiculous, like bite his tongue in half or have his voice crack around one of the words with the weight of his emotions. Levi blinks, looking a little floored, and Eren barrels on, straightening before he adds, “you’re my sunshine, Levi. It, uh. I got it for you.”

Levi’s shoulders hunch and for a minute Eren half expects his boyfriend’s camera to shut off, but with a tremble of his lips, which could be lagging video feed but Eren bets _isn’t_ , he laughs instead. The sound is soft and light, bouncing across the speakers to land like bubbles against Eren’s heart, until he feels his chest collapse inward at the hitch that develops in Levi’s laugh, an uptick in his breathing that he seems to try and hide and fails.

“You got a Zelda tattoo for me,” Levi says quietly, voice tight with what Eren thankfully recognizes as _wonder_. “Holy _shit_ , you giant fucking _nerd_.”

Eren tries to huff out a breath, but with his heated cheeks and the relief that sweeps through him, it comes out as a laugh instead. “I know,” he says instead, knowing he sounds like a fond sap and unable to help himself. “But I just- I ended up sitting on Connie’s couch watching him play it and I was like, y’know, thinking of you, and how _we_ played it, and I thought, _hey, that reminds me of Levi_.”

“So you just- you just _went out_ and got a tattoo because something reminded you of me?”

Eren shrugs, some kind of confession crawling up his throat, something like _nah, if I got a tattoo every time I thought of you, I’d had run out of space ages ago_ , but for some reason that doesn’t feel right. He swallows it and tries again.

“It hurt,” he admits, which wasn’t what Levi had asked, but Eren’s getting there, sort of. “It, like, stung a lot, and then when it was healing it _itched_ , oh my god did it itch. But it- it was a good distraction, from the pain of missing you. Plus you had said it was, like, your favorite, right? When you and I played through it, I mean.”

Eren blinks and suddenly Levi has his face in his hands, his shoulders shaking a little as the laptop wobbles back and forth. His chest clenches and his heart drops, everything inside of him clogging up with sickly-sweet cloying _fear_ , the kind that stiffens his spine and curls his hands into fists, but before he can speak around the dead weight of his tongue, Levi picks his head up and laughs, the curl of his lips not unlike the song itself; the sun comes out when Levi smiles and suddenly Eren can breathe again.

“You fucking _sap_ ,” Levi accuses, sounding breathy and emotional, like he might be on the brink of tears or has something stuck in his throat. “I swear to _god_ , Eren, when I get my hands on you-“ The sentence cuts off and Eren watches as the love of his life presses his lips together, this time fighting something very much like grief as Eren feels the ache of his loneliness start to throb again. The phantom pain of the tattoo’s needle accompanies it, for some reason Eren’s too lovestruck to think too deeply about.

Levi clears his throat like it costs him something and then says instead, in a tight voice, “I guess this means I should get a tattoo of your old childhood game, huh? Maybe the opening notes to the Poke-center’s theme?”

_Matching tattoos,_ Eren thinks. His brain short-circuits a little bit at the thought of Levi, pale skin marked with black ink; he thinks about tracing his fingers over Levi’s ribs and pressing his mouth against them, the thump of Levi’s heart loud in his ears, like old times.

“Like that thought, huh?”

Eren blinks, not exactly embarrassed but _highly_ aware that Levi’s watching the changes of his expression and knows _exactly_ what he’s thinking about. He feels his skin warm and tighten at the thought and he tries not to mentally count down the days until their last final exam, but it’s impossible to ignore.

“Sixteen days,” Eren says, because it’s clear that he _does_ like that thought, altogether too much, and Levi only laughs, his smile wicked but his eyes wistful as he nods.

“Sixteen days,” Levi echoes back. “You can take me by the tattoo place when I come get you, I guess.”

Eren splays his hand over the material of his shirt, where his tattoo sits underneath, and bites his lower lip gently. “You don’t have to,” Eren points out quietly, a token protest he knows when Levi’s eyes are glinting and his mouth is set in a determined line. “But I- yeah. Sounds like a plan to me, if it’s what you want.”

“I want,” Levi confirms, voice only a little rough. His eyes drop down to where Eren’s hand is pressed and a warmth rushes through him, prickling at his skin with _want_. He swallows thickly, trying to ignore it, and Levi makes a noise in his throat that sounds almost like an agreement, eyes finding their way back to Eren’s face, where his expression softens and his mouth curls into a smile.

“God, you’re such a fucking nerd,” Levi murmurs again, leaning forward until his head and shoulders takes up most of the webcam, his elbow propped against the edge of the computer.

Eren puffs out his chest and grins at Levi’s answering laugh. “Yeah, but I’m _your_ fucking nerd,” he reminds him, leaning back to flash the tattoo again like a tease. Levi’s eyes flash darkly and he sighs in contentment, his own cheeks flushing the faintest of pinks in the most endearing way. Eren loves him.

So he says as much.

“I love you,” Eren says, at the same moment Levi blurts out, “ _fuck_ , I love you.”

The Skype connection goes so quiet between them for a second, the feedback connection of mics and speakers almost sounds like crickets. And then, like a switch is flipped, both of them are laughing, Levi hunching over his keyboard until Eren can see the top of his head while Eren slides sideways, clutching his ribs and wheeze, a mixture of misery and loneliness and euphoria and the sticky residue of adrenaline all rushing through his veins until his head swims with it.

“Hey,” Levi says, once they’ve mostly gotten themselves under control. Eren still feels a giggle lurking somewhere on the horizon, but he swallows it back and nods to show he’s listening. Levi smiles, all dazzling teeth and curling lips, and his voice is clear and ringing when he says, “you’re my sunshine too, you know.”

“Who’s the fucking sap _now_ ,” Eren accuses. His eyes sting with tears and his heart lurches with fondness and he loves Levi, he loves Levi _so fucking much_.

“It’s still you,” Levi tells him pointedly and Eren feels that giggle slip out as he hunches over his keyboard, one hand curled tight over the spot on his ribs, just under his heart, where the tattoo sits.

**Author's Note:**

> shoutout to ryssa aka jedierenjaeger on tumblr, b/c she gave me this idea when I was curled up and complaining that I was all out. she's an angel and my hero and the most wonderful writer I've ever seen and I am endlessly grateful to know her. but yeah!!!! nerdy college bfs and their matching tattoos :')


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